Auto crash claims Potomac man

Budding audio engineer remembered by friends and family

Pedro Canuto, 22, was hoping to move out of his parent's Potomac home and into an apartment with his older brother Otavio before he was killed in a car crash on Saturday morning.

"We were looking for apartments where we could stay together, anywhere affordable," said Otavio Canuto, 26. The two hoped to find a place near the Metro where Otavio could commute to his job at Bethesda Florist, and Pedro to his classes at American University, where he was studying to become an audio engineer.

But those plans were dashed when at 6:18 a.m. Saturday the green 1999 Audi Pedro was driving crossed the double yellow lines on Bradley Boulevard and collided with a tree, impacting the driver's side of the vehicle. Pedro was transported to the hospital. He died of his injuries on Sunday.

It was a deadly weekend on county roads. Police say they are still investigating the cause of the crash and of another Poolesville wreck that claimed the life of Ni'Keem Malik Banana, 20, of the 19600 block of Wootton Avenue in Poolesville. Banana had been driving his green 2001 Honda Civic south on Hughes Road around 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, according to police, when the car left the road, struck a tree and came to rest on its side. He was not wearing a seatbelt and was pronounced dead at the scene. In Wheaton, an elderly woman suffered life-threatening injuries after the car she was driving crashed into a home in the 11500 block of Daffodil Lane shortly after 6 p.m. on Saturday, according to Montgomery County Fire and Rescue officials.

Young people are at increased risk of dying in car crashes, according to statistics. According to the Motor Vehicle Administration, someone dies as a result of a young driver-involved crash in Maryland an average of once every three days.

For the Canuto family, Pedro was much more than a statistic. "I could tell the silliest joke in the whole world in a room full of people and nobody would laugh, but he would smirk," Otavio Canuto said. "He knew me very well, and he knew if someone laughed at my jokes it was important to me. So he did it."

Pedro was always willing to put others above himself, Otavio Canuto said. The night before the crash, Pedro was heading to a nightclub in Washington, D.C., he said — but first, he drove out of his way to Sandy Spring to drop Otavio Canuto off at his girlfriend's house. "That was Pedro," he said.

That was around 9:30 p.m., and it was the last time Otavio Canuto would see his brother. He said Pedro was planning to attend a house party after the club. Afterward, Pedro had dropped off his girlfriend and a friend in Bethesda, Otavio Canuto said.

He was on his way home when the crash occurred.

In Potomac, he leaves Otavio; his mother and father, Otaviano and Catherine Canuto; his stepbrother Lucas Braga, 18; and his sister Luiza, 19. His older sister Barbara, 30, lives in Brazil .

Many describe Pedro as "brilliant," citing his penchant for technology. Braga. In the years leading up to his death, Pedro leveraged that skill into a budding audio career, Braga said.